Kays Foundation Awards Grants for Faculty Research
JONESBORO – The board of the Kays Foundation has awarded grants to four Arkansas State University faculty members to provide support for their projects during the 2020-21 academic year.
According to Terry Carty, executive vice president of The Kays Foundation, the grants are part of the foundation's ongoing commitment to assist the university through grants that help advance its academic, service and research missions.
A proposal by Dr. Philip Tew, associate professor of finance in the Neil Griffin College of Business, was approved for an $8,000 grant to expand the A-State Scarlet to Black Program, a financial literacy initiative that began in 2018. The grant will enable Scarlet to Black to partner with the H.O.W.L. Transition Program and develop a peer-to-peer financial counseling and mentoring program to benefit its students.
A $50,024 grant proposal by Dr. Shawn Drake, professor of physical therapy and department chair, was approved to help purchase high-fidelity simulation supplies for a new acute-care lab. In the Kays Foundation Interprofessional Acute Care Simulation Lab, students from multiple programs in the College of Nursing and Health Professions will develop their skills in working with patients in an acute-care setting.
A project proposed by Dr. Cheryl DuBose, associate professor of magnetic resonance imaging and department chair, College of Nursing and Health Professions, was approved for funding. With the $14,944 grant, the Department of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences (MIRS) will purchase two GE Vscan portable sonography machines. Goals include increasing diagnostic medical sonography (DMS) student and faculty collaboration with community health fairs and various research projects.
A proposal by Dr. Than Boves, associate professor of wildlife ecology in the College of Sciences and Mathematics, was approved for a $8,400 grant to support his project, “Uncovering the factors associated with host-switching of specialized parasites.” This is a study of one lineage of feather mites and a set of 50 closely related avian host species of warblers to examine how parasites can shift host species.
The Arkansas State College Foundation for the Advancement of Higher Education, which operates as Kays Foundation, traces its beginnings to 1911 and the administration of V.C. Kays, the founding principal and president of the institution that evolved into Arkansas State University.
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